Racism causing local areas’ failure to safeguard Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage children

A new report from the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has today warned of a “deeply concerning” silence around race and racism in child safeguarding practice.

The report looked at 53 children from Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage backgrounds who died or were seriously harmed between January 2022 and March 2024. The children were subject to horrific abuse, including sexual abuse, fatal assault and neglect, with 27 children dying as a result.

The report sought to understand the specific safeguarding needs of children from these specific ethnic backgrounds and how agencies helped to protect them before it was too late. It has revealed a significant silence in talking about race and racism in child safeguarding, with many local areas failing to acknowledge the impact of race, ethnicity and culture.

Authors say the analysis reveals a “concerning lack of focus on race, ethnicity, and culture” in both safeguarding practice and reviews. This oversight has resulted in insufficient critical analysis and reflection on how racial bias impacts decision-making and service offers to children.

The report identifies a pervasive silence and hesitancy to address racism and its manifestations. This silence renders the safeguarding needs of Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children invisible, both in practice and in the system for learning from reviews.

In failing to acknowledge race, racial bias and racism, the current system misses many opportunities to learn from incidents where Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children have been seriously harmed or died. This failure to see the totality of children’s lives or to scrutinise how racial bias may have affected decision-making leaves children vulnerable and at risk of harm, without the necessary support and protection.

“The silence around race and racism in child safeguarding practice is deeply concerning,” Jahnine Davis, Panel lead for the report, said.

“Ensuring that Black, Asian, and Mixed Heritage children are safeguarded requires a collective effort to build knowledge and understanding at both local and national levels.

“This means challenging current policies, practices and how services are designed and delivered, recognising how racism and racial bias impact our work to protect children.

“We must recognise racism as a child safeguarding issue, whether it underlies the harm caused to children, or hinders professionals from acting accordingly to protect them.

Risk-assessment and decision-making is a common theme across all safeguarding reviews, but this analysis has highlighted specific issues in relation to race. For example, in 19 reviews risk had been at least partially recognised, but this had not translated into action. This included several examples about girls from Asian and Mixed Asian Heritages who made disclosures about sexual abuse, but these appeared either to have been disregarded as untrue or were not carefully followed up.
In one review family members had vocalised that they perceived practitioners to be racist. However, the review appeared to distance itself from any possibility of racism by noting that practitioners had been mindful of the ethnicity of the family. The review then concluded these accusations were groundless, but did not provide evidence about whether the claims had been investigated or provide any detail about how this judgement had been made.

Annie Hudson, Chair of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel said that the recognition of racism and racial bias as a societal issue is a “crucial step in reflecting on, and learning more about, how Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage children are protected from abuse and neglect.”

“The Panel recognises the important work being undertaken in some safeguarding partnerships to address race and racism and to develop anti-racist practice approaches. However, evidence from this analysis indicates that too often critical questions are avoided, evaded and sidestepped.

As part of its analysis, the Panel says it examined its own role and biases in its own work with safeguarding partnerships and in national reviews.

“We are clear we have more to do and want this report to contribute to local and national discussions, building collective knowledge and understanding.”

The Panel’s report contains a number of recommendations for local areas so they can improve practice, including creating better conditions to empower practitioners to have conversations with children and families about race and identity. This includes building skills and confidence and ensuring there are safe opportunities for self-reflection within teams and in supervision to acknowledge their own biases.

Jahnine Davis, Panel lead, continued: “This report is a call to action for all safeguarding professionals. We need to be more willing, reflective, critical, and committed to addressing the impact of race and racism in our work. The silence must end now.”

Responding to the report, Minister for Children and Families, Janet Daby said: “Racism and racial bias are completely abhorrent and should never be barriers to keeping children safe and families getting the help they need.

“I’m grateful for the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s work to bring these injustices to light and I urge frontline professionals to challenge biases that could put children in harm’s way.”